Description
Sequel to THE MOON AND THE DESERT!
Saving the Marsbase One mission made Glenn A. "Shep" Shepard a hero. Commanding Marsbase itself might get him killed.
Colonel Shepard-Earth's first fully bionic augmentee and the man who once crossed interplanetary space to pull off an impossible rescue (The Moon and the Desert)-finally reaches Mars. His new command sits under the Eumenides Dorsum ridge on Amazonis Planitia, a city hewn into caverns where life is math and margin: closed-loop ecosystems, strictly rationed propellant, and minutes-long lightspeed comms lag.
While Shepard grapples with distance from his wife and newborn daughter on Earth, whispers of sabotage, industrial espionage, and anti-bionics prejudice begin to erode trust inside the base. Then a rival coalition's colony ship goes off course and slams into the canyons of Noctis Labyrinthus, far across the Tharsis highlands.
There's no shuttle landing, no cavalry-only engineering, endurance, and a commander whose augmented body can go where others can't. To pull survivors out of the crash before Mars itself finishes them, Shepard must design a rescue that physics barely permits and politics would rather avoid.
Scientifically rigorous yet deeply human, The Sands of Mars is the high-stakes sequel to The Moon and the Desert-a novel about leadership under pressure, and the price of keeping a frontier alive.
About the Author
Robert E. Hampson writes character-driven hard SF where space is messy, unforgiving, and achingly human. His fiction blends medical problem-solving, nuts-and-bolts engineering, and the logistics of living off-Earth-from underground Martian habitats to orbital shipyards-with an eye on plausible technology and the true costs of rescue. By day, he's a professor of regenerative medicine, neuroscience, neurology, and biomedical engineering. By night, he digs into Mars geography, mission architecture, and bionics research so the science on the page feels lived-in and true. He is the author of The Moon and the Desert and Across an Ocean of Stars.
Reviews
Praise for The Moon and the Desert:
"Highly recommended for fans of classic hard sf and space drama." -Amazing Stories
"This is hard science fiction with a vengeance." -Publishers Weekly
Praise for Stellaris: People of the Stars, co-edited by Robert E. Hampson:
"[A] thought-provoking look at a selection of real-world challenges and speculative fiction solutions. . . . Readers will enjoy this collection that is as educational as it is entertaining." -Booklist
"This was an enjoyable collection of science fiction dealing with colonizing the stars. In the collection were several gems and the overall quality was high." -Tangent
Book Information
ISBN 9781668073377
Author Robert E. Hampson
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Baen Books
Publisher Baen Books
Series Bionic Frontier
Weight(grams) 485g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 30mm
Saving the Marsbase One mission made Glenn A. "Shep" Shepard a hero. Commanding Marsbase itself might get him killed.
Colonel Shepard-Earth's first fully bionic augmentee and the man who once crossed interplanetary space to pull off an impossible rescue (The Moon and the Desert)-finally reaches Mars. His new command sits under the Eumenides Dorsum ridge on Amazonis Planitia, a city hewn into caverns where life is math and margin: closed-loop ecosystems, strictly rationed propellant, and minutes-long lightspeed comms lag.
While Shepard grapples with distance from his wife and newborn daughter on Earth, whispers of sabotage, industrial espionage, and anti-bionics prejudice begin to erode trust inside the base. Then a rival coalition's colony ship goes off course and slams into the canyons of Noctis Labyrinthus, far across the Tharsis highlands.
There's no shuttle landing, no cavalry-only engineering, endurance, and a commander whose augmented body can go where others can't. To pull survivors out of the crash before Mars itself finishes them, Shepard must design a rescue that physics barely permits and politics would rather avoid.
Scientifically rigorous yet deeply human, The Sands of Mars is the high-stakes sequel to The Moon and the Desert-a novel about leadership under pressure, and the price of keeping a frontier alive.
About the Author
Robert E. Hampson writes character-driven hard SF where space is messy, unforgiving, and achingly human. His fiction blends medical problem-solving, nuts-and-bolts engineering, and the logistics of living off-Earth-from underground Martian habitats to orbital shipyards-with an eye on plausible technology and the true costs of rescue. By day, he's a professor of regenerative medicine, neuroscience, neurology, and biomedical engineering. By night, he digs into Mars geography, mission architecture, and bionics research so the science on the page feels lived-in and true. He is the author of The Moon and the Desert and Across an Ocean of Stars.
Reviews
Praise for The Moon and the Desert:
"Highly recommended for fans of classic hard sf and space drama." -Amazing Stories
"This is hard science fiction with a vengeance." -Publishers Weekly
Praise for Stellaris: People of the Stars, co-edited by Robert E. Hampson:
"[A] thought-provoking look at a selection of real-world challenges and speculative fiction solutions. . . . Readers will enjoy this collection that is as educational as it is entertaining." -Booklist
"This was an enjoyable collection of science fiction dealing with colonizing the stars. In the collection were several gems and the overall quality was high." -Tangent
Book Information
ISBN 9781668073377
Author Robert E. Hampson
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Baen Books
Publisher Baen Books
Series Bionic Frontier
Weight(grams) 485g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 30mm
